Why do people kill people?
Why do people kill people?
This is a question we would rather not think about, until murder
happens. And then the deep gnawing question of motive rises. Why destroy? Why harm
when you can help heal?
Parkland Fl.
We are reeling again because of yet another horrific killing.
This time in a high school in Parkland FL, and 17 innocent people were victims
to someone else’s rage, and hatred. Our thoughts and prayers are with those
family members.
And as I watch unbelievably the coverage and interviews of
other students who saw and heard the mass murder, you are crushed just to think
of what these young minds are going through and how they are processing the
emotions and struggles of such an ordeal. And so we must pray for that entire
community.
Our society needs to talk about many things in light of these
disasters. And the tragedies force us to do so. How can we help? How can we engage
our politicians? This is the question of what. What can be done? We will address
that below. But there is a different question I would like to answer first.
That is the question of why? Why would a human do this?
Why would someone kill someone?
Why commit the offense that can never be taken back? How
could someone do something so abhorrent! With the amount of deaths in the South
Florida school shooting, people ask and try to answer this question. They
search the criminal’s social media, search history, and try to get into their
mind to find out why?
The action seems insane. And it must be considered this in
one light, for no reasonable person acts this way. And yet they did reason and
they had reasoning that brought them to the conclusion to buy the ammunition
and destroy someone else. The Bible actually does give an answer.
The Problem of “I want!”
James explains that our fighting our quarreling, and yes
even our killing comes out of the heart of desire. Look at James 4:1-2:
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights
among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You
desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you
fight and quarrel.”
Why do you murder? It is because you do not have. This really
gets to the heart of the matter for all murders. It begins with a want, a
desire. This man wants a drug, so they enter a persons’ home. They want to get
out of the house with money to buy drugs and they want to leave without anyone
stopping them, so they must shoot them.
A dictator wants supreme power so they kill.A person w ants revenge so they kill. The rage doesn’t make sense most of the time. And so we
wonder about people’s sanity when they react this lethally in response to
losing something. A person wants to be in front of this other person so they
take out a gun and kill them! I’ve seen people fighting over it and threatening
life.
Another person wants to be right. Another wants money. Another
wants power or political office. A person may want a political office. At
times, this want turns into struggle, and often struggle into fighting, and
fighting into death.
Actually, this is the root of all sin. I want something that
I do not have. I want. And when that want is not a God given item or experience
it is sin. If I want something that God does not want me to have, I am sinning.
And so we really have the root of all sin, but also the solution.
A Lasting Solution.
We can think of many society safeguards. But no society
safeguard will be enough. You see the lasting solution is having our “wanter” fixed. And
that is what God fixes. Think of this Psalm:
“The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want.”
The Bible says the problem of murder starts in the heart that
wants. I want what you have. I want this experience. I want this revenge. I
want. And so that is not only the why of murder, but it is also the solution. If
the Lord is my Shepherd, I don’t need to want. I trust Him as the good Shepherd
to take care of all my needs.
I saw a guy carrying a sign in midtown this week. It was a
big sign very illegibly scribbled on there, so maybe he was mocking the idea.
But it was the truth. It said, “Jesus is the answer.”
You see the solution to the want problem is having the right Shepherd.
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
I don’t have XYZ; I don’t have this relationship; I don’t
have this food, or this car, or this promotion, or this revenge, or this power…
But I have this Shepherd, this good Shepherd Who is guiding me and leading me
from one pasture of life to the next. So I won’t want.
The Lord is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want.
I don’t need to take anything from you because the Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want.
If you are anxious, or wanting or needy, let me introduce you
to the Good Shepherd Who can heal you so that you can say too, “The Lord is My
Shepherd; I shall not want.” When our communities find their wants satisfied in
the good Shepherd, they too will fall away from violence and murder and find contentment
in God and what He gives.
Trust the Lord and don’t want.
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